Green IT Gaining in Popularity

April 7, 2009: According to a new survey by IDC, the economic crisis is making Green IT measures more appealing and the necessity and value placed on green technology is continuing to expand.

The recent survey of IDC Green IT Forum registrants found that 68 percent of respondents rated energy efficiency as "top of mind" when thinking about Green IT, while another 51 percent said their organisation's approach to green was directly tied to the cost savings it could provide.

The survey shows that while going green is not only good for a companies social conscience, but it is becoming a necessity in today’s economic climate as raw computing performance ceases to be a top priority and IT executives struggle to find more efficient compute solutions.

"In difficult economic times, businesses are faced with rising energy costs and forced to squeeze the most amount of compute power out of valuable data centre real estate in the most efficient manner possible," said Vernon Turner, senior vice president of Enterprise Infrastructure at IDC.

"It's becoming more and more critical for technology users and providers to understand the linkages between environmental sustainability and profitability, and to leverage that information when developing overall business strategies. To that end, the business case for Green IT has never been more important."

The survey also found that:

• Eighty-five percent of respondents claim that IT will play a medium to large role in their organisation's effort to reduce its environmental impact.
• However, an astounding 78 percent of respondents say their organizations currently have no budgets in place for green IT and/or corporate sustainability initiatives.
• Sixty-three percent of respondents say that they are currently implementing an IT hardware recycling program.
• When managing hardware recycling and disposition, 51 percent of respondents say their organisations will share the load between in-house staff and outside vendors.
• When retiring assets, security is the top concern among 68 percent of respondents.

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